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Monday, August 11, 2014

Psychological Contracts during the establishment phase

In the last byte, we began our discussion on establishment stage of career-stage model. In today's byte, we look at the concept of psychological contracts in a bit more detail.

A psychological contract refers to the implicit agreement between and individual and an organization that specifies what each is expected to give and received in the relationship.

Expectations of receiving salary, status, advancement opportunities, challenging work etc that meet an individual's need is what he/she expects. Organizations on the other hand, expect to receive time, energy, talent and loyalty from the individuals they employ to meet their needs.

Psychological contracts form and exist between individuals - during the early stages, newcomers form attachment relationships with many people in the organization. Each person they meet is a potential source of a psychological contract.

The psychological support that a newcomer looks for could be any of the following types.